"A successful example of the crowdfunding approach, Xiao’s case was fully funded in just 15 days by individuals from around the world."

“Twenty-three-year-old Xiao Fang is from West Kalimantan, in Indonesia. She was still a minor when she was first offered a job in a restaurant with promise of good wages in Java. Instead she was tricked and forced to work as a domestic worker in Surabaya, East Java, ultimately enduring psychological and physical abuse for six years without being paid.”

Ultra-marathoners Seth Wolpin and Sudeep Kandel relied on leg power and iron lungs to traverse a section of the famed Everest Mail Run; Theo Sinkovits thundered into the high country on his 350cc Royal Enfield motorcycle with a couple of pals.

Together with a small army of university teachers and students, they were helping IOM to assess exactly where survivors of the earthquakes that had rocked Nepal for the past three months have moved to, and what their immediate needs and future intentions are, as monsoon clouds settle over the Himalayan nation.

In a world where migration has become a phenomenon of our time and is due to increase, my biggest concern is how to save the lives of migrants taking dangerous routes – by sea and land – to flee violence or poverty.

As part of a series of interviews done on the margins of Independent Commission on Multilateralism (ICM) retreat on forced displacement, refugees, and migration held recently, William Lacy Swing, Director General of the International Organization for Migration spoke to Warren Hoge, International Peace Institute Senior Adviser and former New York Times foreign correspondent and editor.

"You have landed in Sicily. Do you know where that is?" Abduraman is staring into space, listening to the voice of the cultural mediator. She's showing a map of Europe to a group of unaccompanied children – gathered in a tent shelter protecting them from Palermo’s blistering summer sun.

For Abduraman, a 15-year-old Somali, the journey was too hard for him to now rejoice. He left Somalia with a group of friends several months ago. He has survived the hazards of passing through Libya, where, like many transiting migrants, he was beaten and abused. His back still bears the bruises.

We are all aware of the environmental effects of climate change. However, much less known is the tale of the more than 200 million people who might face displacement, as their livelihood and cultural heritage is threatened by global warming. Through a feature-length documentary, I want to tell the story of these current and future climate migrants, populations torn between the hope that their lands can be preserved and the realization that they need to leave with little chance of ever coming back.

“We just ask Allah, when will we be able to stay in one place and not be scared?” The words of Mohammed Omer, 58 year old unemployed farmer are echoed throughout the village of Ammar Jaded.

Ammar Jaded is a village located in Central Darfur, Sudan. Mohammed Omer lives here with his two wives and 14 children. Before their displacement, Mohammed used to work as a farmer, harvesting and selling his crops in the local markets in Dar El-Salam, where they were originally settled. As a result of increasing tribal conicts, Mohammed and his family’s village was raided and torn apart, resulting in mass displacement and forcing them and thousands of others to leave everything behind. Mohammed and his family ed to Um Dukhun, another locality in Central Darfur.

Nadira turns the pages of her family photo album with the pain of loss etched on her face. Sitting with Nadira and her teenage daughter Sa’ada in their tent at Shekhan camp in northern Iraq, IOM Iraq staff learns of the immense loss their family has faced, through the photos they share.

“Before we were displaced, we spent a lot of time together as a family. We had lots of parties and picnics together. We all lived in the same neighborhood,” Nadira pauses, pointing at a wedding photo in the album.

“I don’t know how I would have managed to return home without IOM since there is no public transportation stopping near my village and I cannot walk,” said Mani Rai, a 65-year-old Nepalese man who just came back to his home in Melamchi Village Development Committee (VDC) in Sindhupalchowk district through IOM’s Assisted Discharge and Referral Service.

“The only option would have been my family carrying me all the way from downtown to home with a stretcher, which would have taken hours,” he continued.